> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.referly.so/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Commission plans overview
> How Referly decides what each affiliate earns: the read-only Base Commission Plan versus custom commission plans, every setting inside a plan, how plans are assigned at the program, group, affiliate, and customer levels, and which pricing tiers include custom plans.
Your commission plan is what decides how much each affiliate earns and when they earn it. Referly gives you two ways to set this up: a **Base Commission Plan** that mirrors your program's general settings, and custom commission plans you build with your own rules. This page explains the difference, what you can put inside a plan, and how a plan gets assigned to your affiliates.
You'll find everything under **Program details** in the left sidebar. Open **Commission Plans** to see your plans.
At the top of the page you'll see **Viewing plans for:** with your affiliate group. This lets you look at, and build, plans for a specific group. The card marked with the green **Default Plan** badge is the one new affiliates get automatically. The **Add Commission Plan** button, on the right, is where you build a new one.
## The Base Commission Plan
The **Base Commission Plan** is always there. It's a read-only reflection of your program's general settings, so you can see your baseline terms without opening a separate editor. The helper text under it says **Defined by the default rules in your program settings**.
The card shows a quick summary: whether affiliates earn cash or a non-cash reward, how much they can earn, and when the reward triggers (on a purchase or on sign up). To change any of it, click the pencil **Edit** button. That takes you to [Program details → General](/docs/help-center/settings/program/general), where you set your program's default reward.
Because it only mirrors those single settings, the Base Commission Plan carries one rate, one commission type, one recurring limit, one trigger, and one reward setup. It can't use conditional rules, hold more than one commission amount, or be scoped to a single group. When you need any of those, build a custom plan instead.
## Custom commission plans
A custom commission plan is a real plan you build in the plan editor. It can do everything the base plan can't:
* **Rule-based tiers**, so a sale earns a different amount depending on the order, product, coupon, or landing page.
* **Product-based amounts**, so each product can pay its own rate.
* **After-period tapering**, so the rate changes over time (for example, a higher rate for the first few payments, then lower).
* **Cash or non-cash rewards**, such as coupons or store credits instead of money.
* **Auto-approval** for affiliates and rewards on the plan.
* Its **own sign-up link**, so anyone who joins through it lands on this plan.
You can create as many custom plans as you like. See [Availability and access](#availability-and-access) below before you start.
## What you can set inside a plan
Click **Add Commission Plan** to open the editor. The video below walks through the main sections so you can see what's configurable.
Here's what each part does:
* **Plan Name** names the plan for your own reference. Affiliates never see it.
* **Reward Type** is a choice between **Cash** (a commission payout) and **Non-Cash** (a coupon or store credits).
* **When should affiliates earn?** sets the trigger: **On Purchase** or **On Sign Up**.
* **Commission Type** is **Percentage** or **Flat**, followed by the **Rate** or **Amount** you want to pay.
* **For How Many Payments?** and **For How Many Months?** turn a plan recurring and cap how long it keeps paying. Whichever limit comes first is the one that applies.
* **Commissions** tabs let you add more than one payout. The **Default** tab applies to any sale that nothing else matches. Add extra tabs to build tiers, each with its own conditions.
### Commission conditions
Conditions tell Referly which tab to use for a given sale. The **Default** tab doesn't need any. It's a catch-all for anything that doesn't match one of your other tabs. Every other tab needs at least one condition, since Referly has no other way to know when that tier should apply instead of the default.
Click **Add Condition** on a tab and choose what to match the sale against:
* **Order Amount**, matched as **greater than** or **less than** a number you set.
* **Product**, matched as **any of** or **none of** the products you pick.
* **Coupon Used**, matched as **any of** or **none of** the coupon codes you pick.
* **Statement Description**, matched as **contains** a word or phrase you set.
* **Landing Page**, matched as **is**, **is not**, **contains**, or **does not contain** a page you set.
If your plan pays **On Sign Up** rather than **On Purchase**, **Landing Page** is the only condition available, since there's no order yet to check the sale against.
Once a tab has more than one condition, choose **ALL conditions must match** or **ANY condition can match** to control whether a sale has to hit every rule or just one of them.
For example, you could set up a tab with **Product** is any of **Pro Plan** and **Order Amount** is greater than **\$100**, with **ALL conditions must match** selected, to pay a higher rate only on large Pro Plan purchases.
See [conditional rules](/docs/help-center/getting-started/commissions/conditional-rules) for more examples.
### After commission periods
Once a tab has a payment or month limit set, an **After Commission Periods** section appears so you can decide what happens after that limit runs out. If you leave it empty, the payout doesn't drop to a lower rate on its own, it just stops the moment the limit is hit.
Click **Add period** to add a **Then** step with its own **Rate** (or **Amount**) and its own **Payments** and **Months** limits. You can set both at once. Whichever one is reached first is the one that ends that period, which is what the **Whichever comes first** label next to the fields means.
Chain as many periods as you need to taper a rate down over time, for example 20% for the first 3 payments, then 10% for the next 6, then 5% after that. Leave a period's payments and months both unlimited if you want its rate to keep paying indefinitely. Once you do, that period becomes the last one and there's no need to add another after it.
### Auto-approve settings
Open **Auto-approve settings** in the plan editor to decide what happens the moment someone joins through this plan, or earns a reward on it.
* **Auto approve affiliates.** When this is on, anyone who signs up through this plan is approved right away and can start promoting immediately. Turn it off and new affiliates wait in your approval queue until you review and accept them yourself.
* **Auto approve rewards.** When this is on, rewards earned on this plan are accepted as soon as they're earned. Turn it off and rewards are held instead, waiting for your review, and any sale on hold won't be paid out until you approve it.
Both are turned on by default. Turn either off if you'd rather check new affiliates or their rewards yourself before they go live.
### Preview your plan
Before you save a plan, click **Show Preview** to see exactly what an affiliate would see if they opened this plan themselves, no guesswork about how your rate, conditions, and tiers add up.
The preview opens in tabs:
* **Overview** shows the reward type, the trigger, and the key terms at a glance.
* **Reward** breaks down the rate or discount, how long it lasts, and any payment limits, including a full timeline if you've set up after-commission periods.
* **Conditions** lists each tab's rules in plain language (for example, "Order Amount is greater than \$100"), using the actual product and coupon names you picked. You won't see this tab on the Base Commission Plan, since it has no conditions to show.
* **Commissions** lists every tier on the plan side by side, so you can double check the whole structure before you publish it. This tab only appears once a plan has more than one commission amount.
Scroll down to **Estimate your earnings** to turn those terms into a real number. Drag the slider to set how many customers an affiliate might refer in a month, and watch the estimated monthly earnings update as you move it. You can also override the average customer value or commission rate the estimate uses, if you want to test different numbers than your program's defaults, then click **Reset to program defaults** to put them back.
Affiliates can open this same preview, including the earnings estimate, for their own plan from the affiliate portal, in their own language, so they always know how they're being paid and what a referral could be worth to them.
When you're done, click **Create Plan**. Each saved plan card also has a link button to copy that plan's **sign-up link**.
For the full detail on the more advanced options, see these pages:
Pay a different rate depending on which product was bought.
Vary commission by order amount, product, coupon, or landing page.
Reward affiliates with coupons or store credits instead of cash.
Pay affiliates on the affiliates they recruit.
## Choose who gets which plan
A plan can apply at four levels, from the whole program down to a single customer. The more specific the level, the more it wins.
* **Program level.** Click the check button on any plan card to **Set as default**. The plan with the **Default Plan** badge is what every new affiliate gets unless something more specific applies.
* **Group level.** Use the **Viewing plans for:** selector at the top of the page to pick a group, then build or set a default plan while that group is selected. Plans you create there belong to that group. Learn more in [affiliate groups](/docs/help-center/settings/program/affiliate-groups).
* **Affiliate level.** You can put a single affiliate on a different plan from their profile or row menu. See [change an affiliate's commission plan](/docs/help-center/manage/affiliates/change-commission-plan).
* **Customer level.** When you change an affiliate's plan, you can turn on **Update existing referrals** to move their past referrals onto it too. You can also change a plan for one referred customer. See [change a customer's commission plan](/docs/help-center/manage/customers/change-commission-plan).
Changing a plan only affects future referrals by default. Existing referrals keep their current plan unless you choose to update them.
## Availability and access
You can build an unlimited number of custom commission plans. It isn't a count that grows with your pricing tier. It's a single feature that's either on or off for your plan.
Custom commission plans are part of the **Startup** plan and up. They aren't included on the **Indie** plan or a trial of it. On those, the **Add Commission Plan** button shows an upgrade prompt instead of opening the editor.
If you see that prompt, you can still use your Base Commission Plan for everyone. To build custom plans, upgrade from the prompt or from [billing and plans](/docs/help-center/billing/plans-and-features).
## Related
Set the baseline reward your Base Commission Plan reflects.
Organize affiliates and give each group its own plan.
Move a single affiliate onto different terms.
See how a plan turns a sale into a reward.